July 1999

IT IS A great tragedy that once again this July the working class population of Belfast's Lower Ormeau will be mobilising to try and stop the Orange Order from marching down their road. A tragedy because the Order should never get that far, it should be stopped by the working class population of the Upper Ormeau! Although Orange marches have been opposed since they began, the recent wave of nationalist opposition in Belfast dates from events in February 1992. On the Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast five Catholics were murdered in a bookies shop by the UDA. That July, some Orangemen while marching past the site of the gave five-fingered salutes. The Portadown march through the Garvaghy Road had provoked serious confrontations in 1972, 1975 and 1981.

It is unfortunate, if perhaps somewhat inevitable, that the now annual battles around the 'marching season' fall along religious lines. The Orange parades are being used to test the supposed neutrality of the northern regime and the RUC in particular. The losing side in this dangerous game however is likely to be the working class, Protestant and Catholic, as the confrontations and the sectarian attacks that occur around the Orange marches drive people further into 'their own' communities.

The NATO bombing of Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo sees another force brought into play against the people of the Balkans. The bombs do not damage the rotten Serbian regime (nor any of the other rotten Balkan warlords). They are targeted at the Balkan people, of whatever ethnicity. Throughout the bombing anarchists from ex- Yugoslavia have been posting reports to the internet. One from Belgrade observed: "When the smoke from the bombs clears away, the social differences will be even bigger, the poverty even worse, the authorities even more harsh. And the matter of Kosovo WON'T be solved!". We call for Irish people to demand the immediate end to the NATO attacks.

BELMONDO WANTETE, an electrical engineer from the Congo, has lived in Ireland with his wife and young children for the last four years, and is a legal resident. He had to flee from his own country because of political persecution. Ireland was supposed to be a safe refuge.Last year, on May 1st, gardaí raided his home at 3am. They had a warrant ...but with someone else's name on it. They shouted threats and racist abuse, and pushed a gun through his letter box. Then they broke in and beat Mr Wantete. His children were dragged from their beds

West Lothian Council in Scotland has given a grant of £350.00 to enable the loyalist Broxburn Flute Band to travel to Ireland for the 12th. This band paraded through Portadown during last year's Drumcree stand-off on the very night that the three young Quinn children were burnt to death by a loyalist gang in Ballymoney.1*****

IN THE FRONTLINE:The Minister for Health, Brian Cowen is refusing to appoint the senior consultant paediatrician Mary Mackey. If there is no senior consultant there will be no paediatricians. Bring your sick and injured children elsewhere.

The Celtic Tiger is special. It differs from our European neighbours in a number of ways. Firstly, since 1993 it has had an average annual growth rate greater than 8%, that makes it one of the fastest growing economies in the western world. Secondly, while in Europe employment in manufacturing has decreased, in Ireland it has to proved to be one of the main areas of growth. Employment growth is double that of the US and four times that of the EU. The economy is growing, more people are in work.Where has this economic success come from? Much of it is due to the Tiger's ability to attract foreign investment. In the last two decades the amount of money available for global production has multiplied. In 1996 it was estimated that $3,200 billion was available for foreign direct investment. This is the money that the Celtic Tiger has been eager to attract. Ireland has received 40% of all American investment in European electronics since 1980.

Election time is almost upon us again. In the South local elections will take place in June. At the same time, both North and South, elections to the European Parliament will be held. Once again anarchists will be discouraging the electorate from taking part. Kevin Doyle looks at the questions involved.

The Scheme Workers Alliance organises people on employment schemes to combat cutbacks and win the extension of part-time workers rights. Uisce from 'Workers Solidarity' spoke to Leo Duffy and Seamas Carrehan of the SWA about the upcoming Social Welfare bill.The Government is continuing its campaign against working class people. Workfare was introduced last year by Mary Harney, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment. It forces people into shit low paid jobs by cutting their social welfare completely. The next phase in this assault is the proposed Social Welfare Bill 1999.

"Ireland unfree will never be at peace" according to the oft quoted phrase of Padraig Pearse. Of course, he was right. But what exactly did Pearse and the republicans of 1916 mean by freedom? What do you think it means? Why does it seem to be so highly prized by anarchists.The anarchist is, according to Bakunin (himself one of the greatest), "a fanatic lover of liberty, considering it as the unique condition under which intelligence, dignity and human happiness can develop and grow" (from 'The Paris Commune and the Idea of the State').

Conditions for the vast majority of people in Spain in the 1920s and 1930s were appalling. For women they were especially bad. There were extreme gender divisions. Most women were economically dependent on men. Household chores and childcare were exclusively women's domain. In both countryside and city women's wages were lower than men's. For example the average daily wage of a male agricultural labourer was 3 pesetas while a women got just half this, for working from dawn to dusk.

The Meaning of Anarchism by Capt. Jack White (Organise!-IWA, Belfast) £1.00* - Veteran of the 1913 lockout, the Irish Citizen Army, the Irish International Brigade

THE VICTORS write history. A similar truth is derived; that those who have threatened the rule of capitalism or the livelihoods of those at its head have been ill-served by their historical representation. Several pivotal figure in the history of working class self- realisation have been omitted altogether from the dominant texts of our society, thus being rarely mentioned outside of academic debate.

The WSM were greatly saddened to hear of the death of Dutch anarchist Karl Max Kreuger from The Hague. Karl used to sell Workers Solidarity in Holland and many of us also remember him from the annual Anarchist Book Fair in London. We send our sincerest sympathy to his family, friends and comrades.

"Only the truth is revolutionary". Whoever first coined this phrase displayed a deep insight into the true nature of politics and political ideas. What passes for political debate in the mainstream media seldom moves beyond the soundbite and the clever turn of phrase. Only a handful of journalists or commentators ever appear to delve beneath the surface and to question what we are all expected to take for granted - Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, John Pilger...

The Sunday Tribune of 7th March 1999 reproduced a photograph taken in the grounds of Dublin Castle in June 1990. Beaming at the camera, without an apparent care in the world, are the then 12 Prime ministers of the European Union, along with their foreign ministers. They had indeed plenty of reason to feel satisfaction with their weekend's work in Dublin - their idea of closer European political union was being discussed and we were all about to be embarked on the road to European Monetary Union and the wonders of the Euro.

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